The art of artificial heart valves is well known. Recently there is a strong interest in minimally invasive methods of replacing defective heart valves, and in particular in percutaneous deployment methods. In those procedures, the new valve is delivered and all the steps to install it, are performed via a fairly narrow catheter, typically 8-10 mm diameter.
Replacing major surgery with the small incision needed for inserting such a catheter is a major step in cardiac surgery.
The mitral valve is a particularly difficult case as the heart has an unfavorable geometry for anchoring a replacement valve. In conventional cardiac surgery the new valve is sutured to the tissue around the natural valve, which is surrounded by an annular ring of more rigid tissue known as the valve annulus.
This procedure is not practical for percutaneous surgery. The main object of the invention is to devise an anchoring method for a replacement mitral valve. A further object is making the method both reversible and percutaneous.